WHAT THOMAS A. EDISON SAYS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 282, 8 June 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

WHAT THOMAS A. EDISON SAYS.

Thomas A. Edison, now chief of the American Naval Advisory Board, lias lately been expressing his opinions on "Science in the Battlefield."

"Science," said Air. Edison, ' w.ll give us anything. 1 have been astonished at the fact that tnere is nothing new in this war. 1 had expected new things, at least of the Germans. But there has been no new things—not even atrocities or novel brutalities! All in the way of cruelties and oppression that has happened m Belgium and in North Fiance might have been done in the Dark Ages. All that has happened which may be classified as scientific advance has been the mere and sometimes maladroit application to war of principles and even definite devices perfectly well known. So, while science is willing t,o g!ve us anything if we ask intelligently, she has given Europe very littla that is new for the promotion ofthis struggle." "What might she have given ':" an interviewer asked.

"1 must not -»y too much along that, line. But tint .:>iich 1 am willing to t.ay —there is n« • «utific reason for the ignoranec of an> *y as to the exact whereabouts ot h,.i.:; ships within reasonable distance.*..'' ""Even to the exact whereabouts of enemy submarines:' " Mr Edison nodded. "All sides," he went on, "have failed to take advantage of modern science. 1 have been more astonished by Germnpy's failure to bring forth new ideas than by the failure of England and Trance to do so, for Germany has specialised in chemistry and electricity more extensively than any of her opponents." "In England education has been different from in Germany. Very likelymany of its details had been worked out witn less perfection. But the omission ef one study from the English schools (and from Great Britain generally) saved England, and will save her. Nowhere were Englishmen instructed in the divine right of kings; /everywhere they were and are instructed in the inalienable right of the individual to work out his own destiny as long as he does not interfere with the similar rights of other individuals. " Germany miscalculated when she figured out the British. She has written more and known less about human psychology than any other nation in the world's history. She thought the British wero too slow, too sodden, to get into the war before Belgium had been stolen, France defeated and Mustia checked.

"All these things might have occurred if the British people had been what the Germans thought they were. But they were not. 1 hold no brief for them. lam one of those Americans who can see the faults of Britons quite as clearly as Britons can see those of Americans. I analyse the Britisn char, acter as cold, unsentimental, brutally practical, incredibly averse to changes even for the better, greedy to do every big job itself in its own way, and impatient of suggestions from others, even though they be equally concerned, too much given to sport, short on nerves (principally because of climate, too much food and too much drink), tolerant of unlimited exploitation of the poor by the rich, willing to endure too many seven-and-a-half dollar clerks and too many benches full of beer barons in Parliament.

"England lias made great and fundamental mistakes, most of which have been laid bare befor* the world by the progress of events connected with this war. She kept Wages too low and stupefied her workmen with alcohol in order to make this possible and to make profit for har titled brewers. She kept her workers so underfed and overbeered that they lost the power to think. It was because they couldn't think, and therefore were incapable of perceiving that this war against Germany is a war of progress against retrogression, for the people against robber barons, that they hung back at first and did not enlist to fight its battles.

" But though the Englishman is slow, when he starts he can't be stopped. He is heavy. Momentum will carry him much further than it will the Germans, or the French or the Americans. It has been this which has made everyone but tile sti'P'd, arrogant and kingridden German militarists realise that England is now as dangerous to tho aggressor as she ever was. But the Germans did not analyse. They mistook the very signs of awakening which should hare warned them that the Hing, lishman was rousing from his dream: mistook them for signs of revolt against his own Government. What nonsense! The Englishman is his own government, as truly as the American. When his Government fails to satisfy him he changes it, and lie changes it without revolution, for ho has the constitutional machinery with which to change it peacefully—and it wouldn't matter if he hadn't: ho would change it just the same if he really disliked it.

''But. believing that no shock could wake him, Germany directed at him the greatest shock the world has over known. At first it looked as if she might succeed. The British workers felt no patriotism. They had been exploited and beered too much for quick patriotic reaction. But England had to win, so the Government stepped in and became the general employer in vital matters, running up wages to a tempting point, and keeping the beer down to a safe point. As soon as this was done, the English workman went to his bench or to his trench."